A Systemic Perspective for Safe Drone Inspections at Industrial Sites

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) are expected to support traditional logistics across a wide range of applications, such as goods delivery and disaster management, while promising improved sustainability performance. Within industrial settings, UASs can be employed to perform inspections of establishments, systems, and equipment, thereby reducing the need for workers to access hazardous areas or carry out tasks at elevated heights. However, the integration of UASs into industrial environments introduces emergent risks that must be properly managed. This requires an analysis that accounts for all technical, human, and organizational components involved in UAS operations, along with their interactions. To address this challenge, this paper adopts a systemic perspective and proposes a Safety Control Structure (SCS) that models the processes involved in the planning and execution of UAS-based inspections within a generic industrial plant. The proposed SCS identifies the key agents in the system, and maps the functional relationships among them to ensure safe and effective operations. This study showcases a novel Concept of Operations (ConOps) about UASs integrated within industrial settings for inspection activities by leveraging a holistic approach to investigate safety-related issues. Eventually, this could assist the system stakeholders to explore how emerging aerial technologies can be safely integrated into industrial inspection processes.